( Reuters) – For Claudia Alejandra, joblessness has become a full-time job.
Because losing her position at the makeup counter at the Macy’s outlet store in Orlando, Florida, on March 28, Alejandra invests her days attempting to protect the welfare that ought to have arrived weeks back, in some cases placing more than 100 calls a day.
The online application, a 10- hour ordeal of mistake messages, ended with a notification that her identity might not be validated. If she’s lucky, she’ll reach a representative who will state there’s nothing they can do to assist. Otherwise, it’s a hectic signal, or an hours-long wait on hold, followed by a sudden problem.
Alejandra, 37, squandered her retirement fund– $800, a year’s worth of cost savings– to make the month-to-month payments on her 2010 Mazda, however does not understand how she’ll pay the rent for her studio house or her phone expense. Longer-term goals– a promotion, a family, a home of her own– seem a lot more elusive.
Alejandra’s experience resembles that of more than 2 dozen Americans thrown away of work during the coronavirus pandemic who Reuters interviewed over the past week.
While U.S. federal government standards state out of work employees who receive help needs to get payments within three weeks of applying, lots of– like Alejandra– are waiting two times that long. Significantly desperate, some are lining up at food banks or bargaining with property owners to delay expenses. Many fill their days seeking responses from overwhelmed state administrations.
Alejandra has actually not heard anything from the state– though she has actually gotten a fundraising email from Republican Senator Rick Scott, who established the existing joblessness system throughout his period as governor.
” I feel like the federal government is failing us,” she said in a telephone interview.
Florida has upgraded and expanded the computer system and brought in 2,000 agents to field calls, and plans an investigation of the system’s failings, Guv Ron DeSantis stated at a Monday press conference. People who used in March and haven’t gotten payments yet likely have not provided all of the required info or may not be qualified, he said.
” You’ve started to see an actually substantial volume of payments heading out, and it’s really taken a significant overhaul behind the scenes,” he said. His office did not react to an email with comprehensive concerns on the circumstance.
In the past six weeks, states have struggled to procedure over 33 million unemployed claims, more than they typically see in a year. That figure does not capture those who have actually been not able to even file a claim due to governmental hurdles– up to 14 million more, according to a Financial Policy Institute research study released recently.
The Reuters interviews throughout four states– Florida, Michigan, Arizona and Minnesota– exposed a wide variation in whether or when people got payments depending on where they live. In Minnesota, where state staff members field queries on social media platforms as well as by phone, 6 out of 7 unemployed people said they were getting advantages–